This invention relates a flooring strip with increased flexibility and straightness, such as laminated hardwood flooring strips assembled to form a hardwood floor. The invention has particular application to glue-down prefinished wood flooring products. Wooden flooring is typically installed by either nailing strips of adjacent wood flooring strips to a subfloor to form an essentially seamless wooden flooring surface, by applying wood flooring strips to a subfloor which has been pre-coated with, for example, a mastic-type layer into which the flooring strips are embedded, or by applying wooden strips with pre-applied adhesive on the base to the subfloor.
Applicant has heretofore developed a prefinished hardwood strip flooring product which can be adhered by an adhesive directly to a suitable subfloor, and which will serve with the same durability and longevity as other, more expensive wood flooring systems. This flooring product has the same solid "feel" as a full thickness, solid hardwood floor of the type typically nailed into place, without any of the "spring" or "bounce" which characterizes prior art glue-down flooring systems which rely on relatively thick foam adhesive pads to adhere the system to the subfloor.
A substantial disadvantage observed in prior art flooring products is the tendency of the flooring strips to pull away from the subfloor, particularly at points where there may be slight irregularities in the subfloor surface. A very straight, rigid flooring strip will pull away from the subfloor more readily than a thin, flexible flooring strip. This can occur with any type of flooring product. The problem may be aggravated when the flooring strip as manufactured has a bow along its length such that the base surface of the strip creates a concavity when laid on a flat surface. This problem has been resolved to a considerable extent by prior developments such as disclosed in applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,102. The hardwood flooring strip disclosed in the '102 Patent includes a multiplicity of closely-spaced transverse scores in the base of the flooring strip. These scores substantially increase the flexibility of the flooring strips without affecting in any way the appearance of functionality of the product. However, scoring the back of the flooring strip causes bowing by relieving tension on one side of the flooring strip while less the tension on the opposite side substantially unchanged. This bowing affects downstream processing and packaging of the flooring strips. In addition, the installer must take the bow into account in cutting and installing the flooring strips. While the problems are manageable, it is nevertheless desirable to provide to the installer a flooring strip that is essentially straight. Apart from the functional reasons for doing this, a perfectly straight flooring strip is aesthetically more akin to solid, full thickness hardwood flooring strips and thus more appealing to the customer.
The product according to the application as illustrated in this application includes a foam-type adhesive system positioned on the back side. The flooring strip is faster, easier and less expensive to install than either an unfinished nail-down flooring system or a flooring system laid into a pre-applied mastic layer. The product has particular application in the flooring aftermarket for use by "do-it-yourself" homeowners who want the expensive look of high quality hardwood flooring without the disruption resulting from a contractor-installed floor. There is presently a trend back towards the use of hardwood flooring, and many homeowners are removing existing carpeting in order to replace it with hardwood flooring. A flooring system which can be installed onto a subfloor onto which a carpet was previously installed without the need to raise doors and moldings to accommodate a greater thickness is desirable, since it simplifies the do-it-yourself installation process.
The flooring strip according to this application address those needs and, in addition, is very flexible, strong and straight. By straightening the flooring strips, the quality and functionality of the product is increased. By removing the bow in the flooring strip introduced by cutting scores in its back side, any residual tendency for the center of the flooring strip to pull away from the subfloor over time eliminated.